So I got some ghost shrimp almost a month ago. Three of them for my five gallon with one Betta.

They've been awesome. They're interesting to watch, they clean up the tank when I give my betta flakes (which he attacks and gets pieces all over the place) and they give the Betta something to investigate once in a while.

Then, this morning, my betta's tail was all shredded up and even had a little hole in it! I was so shocked because the filter had been off and there is NOTHING he could snag on in the tank besides real plants which are all soft. It was a completely mystery until I looked over at my betta shortly after feeding time and I saw one of the shrimps hanging onto his tail and eating it while the Betta raced around!I thought it would never give off, even after I tried to grab it and scare it off!

I'll miss the guys, but I think they're going to be fishfood just as soon as my goldfish is big enough to eat them. My poor Betta's lovely tail!

I know! Me either! Now that I think of it, I had occasionally noticed that my Betta's tail looked a little bit frayed now and again. I thought he might be getting finrot, but that seemed wrong because his water is great. It must have been the shrimp.

It might only happen around feeding time. They shrimp seem to be able to sense when i add food to the tank and they usually swim up to the top after a few minutes. I guess they're so frenzied that if they don't find anything, they go for my Betta's tail.

I will be sad to let them go. I really enjoy them. But I don't enjoy a Betta with a shredded tail (though who knows, maybe the Betta likes it too. His tail is really quite long. hahha)

I guess my Betta is not agressive enough. I thought he would be because he flares so often, but he's never gone after the shrimps at all. By now, they're too big for him to get anyway.

I would, but it seems silly to have another tank just for ghost shrimp. I mean, I don't like them THAT much. Part of why I liked them was because it made the tank feel more like a tiny ecosystem than just a Betta in a box of water.
Anyway, the only thing I have is a 2-2.5ish gallon tank ... which I guess would be large enough for them. Hmm. And it might look kind of nice in my bathroom... Still, it seems a little absurd to have a tank with nothing but ghost shrimp...
Are there any fish small enough to put in a 2.5 gallon tank that don't need to be kept in schools that would be too large for it? All I have for it is an undergravel filter for it, and I don't really want to buy a new filter just for a ghost shrimp tank. (It's kind of scuffed and scratched and acrylic anyway, so... yeah.) I also have a heater, and I'm not sure if the lighting works or not.

My only other option is that I might be setting up a 20 gallon for a quarantine tank, mostly for goldfish because I'm going to be aquring two or three more at different times over the next month or so.
Does anybody know the temperature tolerance for ghost shrimp? I doubt it's that high, though I do remember seeing some on Blue planet off a coast that didn't look TOO warm.

My quarantine tank for goldfish would be kept pretty cool...

Oh, yeah. Forgot to mention. I would probably be getting very small goldfish so they probably couldn't eat the shrimp. And even if they did, like I said earlier, I wouldn't be TOO upset to part with them.

Last edited by onekatietwo; 05-23-2009 at 05:43 PM.
Reason: Forgot a detail.

Also, to 'replace' the shrimp, is there any other small creature/fish/whatever that I could keep in a 5 gallon with a Betta? Or is this too small? I feel like it would be pushing it.
I already tried a snail and it died pretty quickly so I don't want to risk another. Plus, I've started using soft water for the Betta and that's supposed to be bad for snails anyway.

Ugh. So I just caught them doing it again and my Betta's tail looks like it has some major fin rot or something awful.
Since it wasn't too bad, I was going to give them some time to set up another tank or work out some options, but now they're going straight into my goldie tank. He's not too big yet, so maybe they'll live for a while and if they don't, at least he'll get a good, healthy, parasite free snack.

Poor Betta. I hope his fins grow back quickly.

Anyone have any idea of the ghost shrimp could survive a temp change from 80 to 65 if I do it over the course of a few hours? I'm thinking probably not and I should probably give it a day at least.

But I'm kind of running out of patience for these guys. Who knew I would get so protective of my Betta? Haha.